Once again this summer Professional Responsibility and Ethics Program (PREP) students participated in the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) 2014 Summer Associate Research Program (SARP). SARP is a national program in which the ADL provides compelling civil rights and constitutional issues for which ADL needs research assistance. The students from law schools and various law firms’ summer clerk programs select the issues that most interest them.
This summer, Alexis Alvarez, a PREP intern, and Gina Rhodes, a PREP fellow, volunteered to research and co-author a memorandum of law on the effect of "personhood amendments" on individuals’ reproductive rights and imperative constitutional safeguards. Jennifer Felipe, a PREP fellow, also grappled with the legal and policy considerations involved in the debate of whether to extend First Amendment protections to the results of U.S. based search engines, like Google or Bing.
“PREP's participation in the ADL summer program is a tremendous learning opportunity for our students and another terrific opportunity for Miami Law students to engage in pro bono work on significant civil rights issues that are front and center throughout our country,” said Jan Jacobowitz, Director of PREP. “It is gratifying to see how engaged our students become in the issues.”
SARP’s June 11th kick-off breakfast introduced students to the ADL’s past century of civil rights work and emphasized that the students’ contribution to SARP is far from theoretical. Each year the ADL's national legal team uses the research compiled by these students to move one step closer to the league's ultimate goal of living in a "world without hate." The students’ executive summary memorandums are published in a SARP publication that is widely distributed at the ADL Miami Jurisprudence Luncheon in December and to ADL offices nationwide.
Adds Jacobowitz, “ADL's encouragement and appreciation of the students' efforts often lays the foundation for further pro bono engagement in the community. All in all it is a wonderful win-win situation.”
